Post Benetton Exit, Andrea Incontri Unveils Art Direction of Alessi Campaign
MILAN — In his first big appearance after parting ways with Italy’s Benetton Group in April, designer Andrea Incontri has resurfaced. This time in the world of design.
The creative who is known for his background in architecture launched the new communications campaign for design firm Alessi on Wednesday, at a presentation in a private home in Milan’s burgeoning Isola neighborhood.
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Titled “Alessi Moments,” it’s a convivial daily life photo and video portrait of friends and family in the modern world. It’s also an emotional narrative that highlights the role Alessi objects have played in everyday interactions for over a century.
Incontri told WWD that it was paramount to depict Alessi‘s designs in a “democratic” setting and in an informal way that reaches younger generations.
Alessi was founded by Giovanni Alessi Anghini, a sheet metal worker, in the lakeside town of Omegna in 1921. Since then, the firm’s stylish home decor, tea pots and pans have become ubiquitous in Italian homes.
“It’s important that this generation gets to know Alessi in a more informal way. The animated shots in which you can see when the girls are cooking and the photos in which you see the pots in the middle of soapy, foamy water . . . tell the story of the product but also the story of the personality,” Incontri said, speaking in front of an Alessi table setting enhanced with new service wear by Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa with 102-year-old Japanese dyer Samiro Yunoki.
The Plissè water boiler by designer Michele de Lucchi also featured prominently as did the iconic Cupola coffee maker designed by Aldo Rossi in 1988 arranged on a nearby tray next to a newspaper.
The service wear, along with the new Menhir coffee maker by Cypriot-born, London-based designer Michael Anastassiades, the Toru tea kettle by Japanese design Studio Nendo and the Eugenia glassware were part of the Alessi brand’s refresh unveiled in April during Milan Design Week. The refresh involved embracing experimentation, which also meant the company was testing new materials. In addition to the various metals, wood, porcelain, glass and plastic it traditionally has used, the company continues to test materials with an increasingly reduced environmental impact, such as new biopolymers derived from renewable sources, Alessi said at the time.
It was not the first time Incontri collaborated with Alessi. In 2010, he unveiled the Oui napkin ring he designed with the company. Moving between design and fashion, he said, is something that comes easy, due to his background in architecture.
“I’m a bit of a hybrid. I don’t consider myself a fashion designer or an industrial designer. I like working in quality lifestyle design and in my opinion there is a thin boundary between timeless products — that can be a polo shirt or a citrus juicer,” he said.
An architecture graduate from the Politecnico di Milano who launched his namesake brand in 2009, Incontri won the men’s edition of the “Who Is on Next?” talent search in 2010 in the accessories category. The designer quickly extended his label to menswear, delivering collections with an attention to detail and use of high-end materials.
In 2012 he added a women’s collection, which made its debut as part of the Camera Nazionale della Moda’s official fashion week schedule in February 2013.
He was Tod’s menswear creative director for five years in the 2014-2019 period.
Incontri unveiled his first collection with United Colors of Benetton in 2022.
The Alessi communication campaign was lensed by Giampaolo Sgura, who last year also became a creative director of Named Cultura. Inspired by skater culture, Sgura opened the brand together with friends Mauro Porzia and Edoardo Lo Izzo. The video was shot by Francesco Parrelli.
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